Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• Different strategies and skills are required to understand a variety of materials.
• People apply critical thinking skills when reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
• People access, read, evaluate, and use a variety of resources to get information.

Essential Questions

• What does it mean to "understand," why do we need to understand what we read or hear, and what strategies and skills can we use to understand a variety of materials?
• What is critical thinking, why is important, and how can we use critical thinking skills?
• Why do I need a variety of resources? How do I access information and use it responsibly? How do I evaluate resources?
• How can I access information from a variety of resources, evaluate it, and use it responsibly?

Standards
Must be Mastered by End of Year Must be Introduced Other Standards & E-skills

Phonemic Awareness

    Use knowledge of blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes in one or more syllable words.  

Phonics

See Correct Letter Formation from August

    Recognize and use knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including diphthongs, common vowel patterns, and common word endings to decode unknown words

Fluency

    Orally read grade level materials attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation.

Adjust reading pace to accommodate purpose, style, and difficulty of text.

Vocabulary

        Use sentence structure and background knowledge to understand word meanings.

        Understand and generate vocabulary specific to content.

        At the end of quarter three, students will be able to read 300 (or all) of these sight words.

        Other words will be learned from phonics, spelling and vocabulary programs to total the expected 1000+ words.

Comprehension

Generate a written or oral response to what has been read.

Connect information and events in texts to life experiences.

    State the purpose for reading.

    Interpret information from simple diagrams, charts, and graphs.

Resources

Sight Word Powerpoint:  Basic sight word recognition is essential for reading fluency and comprehension. This PowerPoint Slides will be a quick way to practice 220 essential high-frequency words with your child. Sit down and challenge your student by asking him/her how many words he/she knows. If they do not know these words yet, it will be a fun way to start.

Sight Word Powerpoint with Sentences:  This presentation includes the 220 essential high-frequency words and an example of those words used in context. This will be a great way for children to practice sight word recognition within the context of a basic sentence.

Audio Sight Word PowerPoint Slides Slides:  The following link will allow your child to work with smaller amounts of the 220 sight words children need to master by the end of third grade.  The links are divided into groups of 20 (11 lists in all).  Start with List 1 and work through List 11.  When you feel your child has mastered all 220 words (with 90%) accuracy, try out the PowerPoint Slides presentations found in slots 1 and 2. The PowerPoint Slides Slides in slots 1 and 2, however, do not have audio support. 
Sight Words Part 1   Sight Words Part 2    Sight Words Part 3    Sight Words Part 4    Sight Words Part 5
Sight Words Part 6    Sight Words Part 7    Sight Words Part 8    Sight Words Part 9    Sight Words Part 10
Sight Words Part 11

The King of Soundsound:  This challenging reading activity provides access to all 44 phonemes (sounds) that our language provides. By reading this story and practicing it with your child, you will ensure that your child is exposed to the multifaceted sounds our language makes. At the end of this story, you will also find several phonogram poems that will improve your child's fluency. Read these with your child and have a blast!

Phonogram Powerpoints:  A phonogram is a word part that contains a group of letters that are often found together (ight, ell, ought, ook, oop, ump, uss). It is important for children to recognize phonograms as part of their phonics training. These powerpoints will provide easy access to over 200 different phonograms you can practice with your child. The more phonograms they can pronounce, the more words they will be prepared to read and sound out.

Lessons